Clicks vs. trips

Edited from an original story by Mary Lahr Schier in Humphrey Institute News, November 2003.

From eNews, January 8, 2004

At the dawn of the Internet age, futurists predicted that as
telecommunications improved, we would travel less--working,
shopping, and banking from home. Why, then, do traffic jams
persist? A University of Minnesota professor is studying how our
use of the Internet affects congestion and social behavior. Kevin
Krizek, with the U's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, is
collecting and analyzing data on household travel decisions in
three cities--Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Kansas City--so that
transportation planners can better understand how urban areas may
change as technology becomes more pervasive. "At one point, we
thought that e-commerce could replace a lot of physical travel and
therefore we'd eliminate our congestion woes," Krizek says. "The
emerging thought is that information technologies are not replacing
household travel but are complementing it." In some cases, Krizek
says, shopping online directly replaces certain trips. But the
Internet and other technologies may be prompting more purchases and
travel--both short trips to the local mall and longer trips for
leisure travel. "The good deals people can get on airline tickets
through the Web may well be instigating travel," he explains. In
addition to influencing our travel behavior, Krizek says the
availability of products through the Internet has affected the way
a community socializes. Many bricks-and-mortar retailers have
changed their approach to customers. Bookstores, for instance, have
remade themselves as coffeehouses and neighborhood gathering spots
as well as places to buy books. "Much of the social interaction we
require is invaluable and cannot be adequately served
electronically," he says. "For example, renting a movie is not a
substitute for going to the theater because the two are not usually
considered equivalent experiences." Krizek's research is part of a
larger project, the Sustainable Technologies Applied Research
Initiative, sponsored by the U's Center for Transportation Studies.
To learn more about the initiative, see http://www.its.umn.edu/research/projects/2003012.html.
For more on Krizek's findings, see http://www.hhh.umn.edu/news/newsletter/2003/nov03.pdf.